WELCOME TO THE RETIREMENT FUNDS INSTITUTE OF NAMIBIA

The Retirement Funds Institute of Namibia "RFIN" is a non political body which represents and promotes the interests of the retirement industry in Namibia, to the ultimate benefit of the members of retirement funds. The most important function of RFIN is to represent the retirement industry in negotiations with government authorities, which would include commenting on legislation effecting retirement funds/pensioners etc. RFIN therefore depends on total support from all parties concerned with the retirement benefit provision industry.

RFIN is a non-profit organisation, which has a membership base which includes the disciplines associated with retirement benefits, including those administrators, actuaries, consultants, brokers and insurers insofar as their administration of retirement funds are concerned.

RFIN was established in the late 1990s, but went dormant for a few years and was then revived in 2004 by interested parties within the Government Institutions Pension Fund.

OUR OBJECTIVES
Our principal objective is to protect, promote and advance the interests of retirement funds as envisaged in act, their trustees, members and persons associated with such funds in Namibia.

To be recognized as the legitimate representative of the industry;

To make RFIN more relevant to its members (giving members value for money);

To establish a benchmark for training of Trustees;

To elevate the level of the RFIN office; and

To broaden the RFIN member base and to ensure proper funding to enable the achievement of the goals.

During the first year, member funds were contacted and requested to pay the increased membership fees in the expectation of service delivery in the future. All member funds accepted the challenge and after another year of having limited services on offer, the Institute appointed 2009 a full-time General Manager and opened offices of its own.

Since then, the Institute could capitalise on the employment of a capable and fully competent General Manager, who enabled the Institute to become more efficient. A fully-fledged Strategic Planning session flowed from the efforts of the General Manager to clarify goals and objectives for the Institute as a whole.

During 2009, the Institute contributed to various important discussions influencing our environment in Namibia. These were, amongst others:

Regulation 15 and 28;

The FIM Bill;

FIA application, where we influenced a stay on the implementation of the requirements on Retirement Funds;

The Financial Charter.

Further highlights of the past year were 

The first Trustee training done under the auspices of RFIN  this was a huge success and participants were unanimous in their praise for the level of training presented;

The regular newsletter which had gone out to a wider audience and which will in future also contain articles aimed at member education;

A well-attended Conference with top-class speakers from the Namibian and South African industry; and

The achievement of our goal of a properly funded organisation. While this will be one of the biggest challenges going into the future, the foundations have been laid and we can build on it further.

New ventures for 2010 include:

To have the regular newsletter include useful educational articles;

Have a website up and running by end April 2010;

Arrange Breakfast sessions where the Industry will be able to discuss and debate issues of interest to all of our members;

Make available standard documents such as Codes of Conduct, Investment Policies and Communications Policies for the use of member funds; and

To maximise the value of a full-time office by bringing more of the financial industry bodies such as the Unit Trust Association, LAAN and others together in a joint office.

The Retirements Funds Institute of Namibia still plans to become a Hub of Excellent Information over the next few years. We have started negotiations with experts to serve as referents for the Institute and hope to achieve some measure of success soon.